19. Finley
Finley
Finished with the call, I headed back into the house where the guys were talking amongst themselves, none of them looking all that happy.
I paused, watching them as Mason spoke with his whole body, arms moving, face animated, while Noah sat next to him, chin resting on his hand, looking thoughtful.
Those two couldn’t be more different from each other, but they both had a heart of gold when it came to people they cared about.
Elias turned his head meeting my gaze, letting me know that I hadn’t gone unnoticed by him.
Although I had to wonder if it was more so our bond than it was him actually sensing I was here.
Along with the long hair, perfect skin, and ever so slightly pointed ears, I noticed my steps were practically silent when I walked.
Even more so than just from being a werewolf, the fact that Elias was the only one who’d reacted to me being here made me think they might not know.
“My heart, how did the call go?” Elias asked. He didn’t even try to raise his voice to speak over the others, but I heard him clear as day.
Was this a skill of my own, or did it have something to do with the bond, or maybe something else entirely? These days I couldn’t keep up with all that was changing about me. Moving forward, I sat myself on his lap and nuzzled his neck.
“The call was not how I expected it to go.”
“What happened?” Zander demanded, his alpha energy filling the air.
“In a surprising turn of events, it seems that Tabitha isn’t working with the Organization any longer. She’s been AWOL for almost a year,” I shared.
“How could they not tell their people something like that? Wouldn’t it be more dangerous not to know, like what happened with you?
” Lane questioned as he removed his baseball hat to run his fingers through his hair.
“I get not wanting to air out your dirty laundry, but something like this is rather major.”
Since I agreed with him, I didn’t comment on the choices of the Organization.
As Margaret had said, they weren’t my center focus anymore, and how they did things was their choice.
“The more interesting part of this is that they sent people to hunt her down to bring her back or kill her if she refused. None of the people they sent after her could find her, so they presumed she was dead or was possibly working for the Senate. Even now, with having talked to her, I can’t figure out if it’s the Senate or the Dark Ring she is now an asset to.
Either situation is not going to be good for us, but I think with a little digging, I can make an educated guess. ”
“What kind of digging are you talking about?” Noah inquired. “You seem confident that you’ll find something helpful and I know we don’t have access to anything like that.”
“Margaret is going to supply me with a secure laptop with access to the Organization’s database seeing as now this has the potential to be bad for both parties.
Tabitha knows a lot about the inner workings of the Organization.
And in the hands of the enemy, it could be quite lethal.
We both decided that letting me solve this problem and bring an end to Tabitha would be a wise choice.
Margaret also informed me that no one knew the truth about me still being alive except for her and the two leaders of the Organization.
Of course, the Senate also knows about me since Zander’s mother is aware of most of the details. ”
Zander’s body tensed at my words, refusing to look at me. “Are you saying my mother could be a part of this?”
Slipping off Elia’s lap, I knelt before Zander placing my head on his knee, knowing that he needed me to be his omega right now. I nuzzled my cheek against the jeans he wore, purring softly, trying to get him to relax a little.
“I’m not saying anything but facts right now. There is no way for us to know what your mother is involved in or not, but it’s something we can’t ignore either. There is no way you could have known how muddled this would all get.”
Taking a deep breath of my scent, Zander calmed enough to reach out with a hand and stroke it through my hair.
I let him sit there silently, massaging my scalp as he collected himself, giving him all the support I could.
Not having any sort of parent to look up to, I didn’t know how this was affecting him, but I could feel his pain all the same.
My wolf let out a sad howl, upset at the fact our mate was hurting like this, but I was doing all I could at the moment.
He’d made it clear he didn’t like me using my magic on him, so I wasn’t going to alter his emotions even though my magic begged me to.
Eventually, Zander leaned over and hauled me into his lap, wrapping me up in a little ball that he cuddled to his chest. He buried his nose in my hair, letting my scent wash over him, causing him to start purring and finally be at ease.
“Where do we even start if we don’t know who’s actually after us?
” Lane asked as he got up from his seat and walked into the kitchen out of my line of sight.
I heard the refrigerator door open and bottles rattle about, so I wasn’t surprised when he returned with beers for each of them, even Rath.
“I didn’t know if you drank or not, but I figured I should still bring one. ”
“Thank you, I don’t often, but then again, it depended on the master or mistress at the time if they would let me drink,” Rath said, then took a long draw from the bottle.
“As for where to start, I know the right strings to pull for the people in the Dark Ring. There is more than one way to gather information if you are not opposed to getting your hands dirty.”
Lane and Noah looked the most uncomfortable with this idea out of all the guys, but the others seemed to agree.
“After all they’ve done to us supers, it’s time they got a taste of their own medicine.” Colt snarled. “They took my brother from me. There’s not a chance in hell I’m letting them take my mate.”
“What if going after them brings down more punishment than we can handle?” Lane cautioned.
“Do we think they will try again to take Finley so soon after what happened in Florida?” Noah questioned, feeding off Lane’s trepidation.
Elias stood, drawing everyone’s attention.
“You guys aren’t understanding something.
They brought this war to our doorstep, and if we don’t stand up and do something about it, they will destroy us one way or another.
They don’t just move on from things because we keep our heads down.
The options are to run for the rest of our lives or fight with everything we have protecting those who count on us. ”
“He’s not wrong. I’ve seen people come after those who were taken and get slaughtered for it because they didn’t believe the threat was real.
If we do this, we need to be all in and all on the same page about it,” Rath pointed out.
“The thing they don’t know is that Finely is as strong as she is and that she has me to teach her all I can.
Not to mention she is a skilled assassin and can manage situations none of us can.
” Rath turned to me, scootching to the edge of his seat.
“If we can prove that the Senate and the Dark Ring are working together and that the Organization might be in danger because of it, will they help us?”
I had to think about that for a moment, not really sure of the answer. Would Margaret be able to convince the leaders of our group to make a stand against the Senate or the Dark Ring?
“If they endangered the Organization, I believe there might be a chance. It would have to be obvious and something I can prove without the shadow of a doubt, but Margaret is practical to a fault,” I answered.
“Then I know who our first person should be, but the only problem is that he is well known to the world. If we move on him first, he will have the most information to tell us, but it will also tip our hand,” Rath shared.
“I do have others that are a more subtle approach, but they won’t have the information we need. ”
“You leave that problem to me. Subtle is what I do best. If this is the person we will get the most information out of, then what choice do we have?” I countered.
“The Dark Ring moves fast. They barely waited a week to come after me. Time is not on our side and I don’t want to involve others if I don’t have to. ”
Zander’s grip on me tightened as if he could hold me back from making this choice, but we both knew it was the only choice to make. “I agree with the elf. It’s better to go for the one target to get the information we need than to go after smaller ones and get caught in the process.”
The others nodded or spoke their agreement to the plan so far. Then all eyes turned on Rath to give us the name.
“Maxime Crevier, the tech mogul who works with the Department of Defense to build jets that can’t be tracked.
I’m sure he does more than that. It’s just the project he won’t stop talking about to whoever is near him.
He is one of the top members of the Dark Ring and the only other man to have a personal elf as his slave.
In fact, he is Mr. Crevier’s personal assistant walking around like a normal human.
It works in Crevier’s favor that he hates to be out in the normal public, preferring to stick with people who share his predilections that are common in the Dark Ring,” Rath divulged.
“If we can get Crevier and his elven companion, Jhaeros, we will have plenty of information to work with.”
“Jhaeros doesn’t try to escape?” I asked, feeling surprised by that information.
Rath looked at me and I could feel a wave of sadness coming from him. My elven mate was distraught just thinking about Jhaeros, but he didn’t reveal why.